Dragonsong

I built a new recording rig that I’m excited about. I don’t like to talk too much gear on this site, but I’m quite pleased with the performance and cost-effectiveness of it. I have more tone-shaping options in the analog domain for tracking to work with. I also picked up a few new microphones that expand my arsenal of recording tools in a very useful way.

To test drive the new rig, I asked Eddy Dyer if he was up for a session. This song is the result. I also used the session as the basis for an upcoming Recording Magazine article about recording singer/guitarists at the same time. We got together with my new mics and rig, and the portable acoustic panels I bring to remote sessions, and we had a great quality mobile studio set up.

Then this happened:

We recorded two takes of Eddy playing his new Taylor guitar and singing at the same time. The first take was the best one; that’s the one you hear throughout most of the song. But the second take was really good too, so I edited it in to match the flow of the first take. That’s the 2nd guitar and the reverby chorus vocals you hear in the second half of the song. It was a nice moment, I’m lucky to have had my rig there to capture it.

Do you see?

Eddy Dyer – Far Be it From Me

This album was a treat to be a part of. It begin 13 years before I got involved. I’ll let Eddy tell the story:

“In 2003 my father died as I was traveling sacred pre-Christian sites in Ireland. Over the trip I wrote an album’s worth of songs dealing with loss, impermanence and grief. Started putting the album together and tracking in early 2004 then experienced a severe breakdown, and scrapped the project.

On Sunday, June 4th,2017, 14 years later, after losing both my brother Michael and my dear friend and longtime musical partner Brad Clarke earlier this year, I recorded the whole thing in one epic session; 13 songs altogether; 10 originals plus covers by my dearly missed friend Van Lawton, The Cure and PJ Harvey.”

Needless to say, this record has ghosts. We tracked the record in one day at The Halo Studios in Maine. We got Eddy’s guitar and vocal takes in about four hours, then spent another three or four recording tin whistle and backing vocals. There were a lot of room mics on this album, pretty much all the overdubs (whistle, backing vocals) were recording with ribbon room mics, where I had the performer stand in a different spot of the room for each overdub. For multiple takes, it sounds like a room full of musicians playing when you add them all together.

For the technically minded, this is the first album I’ve ever mixed using the Harrison Mixbus 32C DAW. This is a great mixing platform based on the open-source Ardour DAW, but with Harrison’s emulation of their famous 32C analog console bootstrapped on to it. I really like the workflow, and especially the sound, in mixing this way. I definitely plan to continue using Mixbus for mixing.

Zoë Knight – Come Here My Darling Lover

This was a fun mix. It’s as simple as you can get; 2 mono tracks, piano and vocals, reasonably well recorded with a nice microphone. The piano is a stunning 1893 Steinway Model A with a gorgeous tone, and Zoë is in full command of her voice. There were a few bumps and background noises that needed some repair, but the biggest challenge was to add a sense of spaciousness to the song, given the mono character of the sources. Also, the vocal track is a quite dynamic performance that required a bit of taming to get it to sit well with the piano. I used a lot of techniques, including EQ, a few different compression schemes, reverb, saturation, and delay. The final mix has a lot of ambience in it, perhaps a bit much for some but I thought the song called for it.

I’m happy with how this came out. It’s a real testament to the fact that if you have a decent mic, a great-sounding instrument, and a good mix, anyone can make great recordings. This Syren’s song is an appropriate song for Valentine’s Day, so give it a listen!

Eddy Dyer – Heart Of Your Rage

heartofyourrage-coverHeart Of Your Rage is the second single from Eddy’s forthcoming album, Love is At The Heart of This Thing, Right? We’ve been working on this album for several months and I couldn’t be more excited about it. Give a listen here:

Musically, there’s a lot going on here. Acoustic guitar and a single vocal take are the foundation of the song, with several layers of electric guitars (played by both Eddy and by Justin Spicer) coming in & out of focus as the song progresses. One of the more subtle guitar tracks was recorded at Battery Steele on Peaks Island, Maine, which was one of the most fun recording sessions I’ve ever been a part of. Eddy also played bass, and there is also cool synth drone that runs in the background throughout the song. There are drums (played by Chuck Greenwood and recorded by Bob Nash at Wonka Sound in Lowell, MA).  About 2:00 in you can hear a kid’s choir directed by Eddy & Seth Bailin. The song slowly builds all the way up to the climactic ending. After I dialed in the final mix, the song was mastered by Scott over at Old Colony Mastering, who will also be mastering the album when it’s finished.

All that is well and good, but the real story with this song is with the lyrics, which are quite timely in this world:

After our fight, I let the cedar wolf lead me deep inside
into the angry flesh of a tulip, partially capsized.
When we washed the blood from our faces at the heart of it all
we could see the bottomless well behind the cracks in the wall;

It said,
“Illuminate the love that resides within the heart of your rage
Illuminate the love that is hiding in the heart of your rage
because later or soon, there’ll be
none but the moon left to blame
so cast off what’s been burned in the fire,
keep what’s been forged in the flame.

Liberate the love that resides within the heart of your rage
Liberate the love that is hiding in the heart of your rage
because in sin or in grace, there’s but one face
that carries your name
so cast off what’s been burned in the fire,
keep what’s been forged in the flames

Watch the stars, they’re moving

Celebrate the love that resides within the heart of your rage
celebrate the love that is hiding in the heart of your rage
because in sin or in grace, there’s but one face
whose ways you can change
so cast off what’s been burned in the fire,
keep what’s been forged in the flames

and love.

Enjoy the song. If you really enjoy it, then support Eddy as we complete this album.

Podcast Episode 12: The Dead Speak

the-dead-speak-5

 

October 31st is a good day to tell tales of the dead. For this episode, I recorded Pete Witham & The Cozmik Zombies doing their song “Dancing With The Dead.” Thanks to Jon Wyman and the guys at The Halo for the recording space. Pete Witham wrote the song, sang it, and played lead guitar. Drew Wyman played upright bass. Steve Dunphy played acoustic guitar and sang backing vocals.

Spoken word contributions came from several of my favorite Gods & Radicals writers. In order of appearance, they are:

The background sound on this podcast is a result of an accident with a campfire, a time machine, and a cave. It’s a long story.

Artwork in the image above is “Hornblower” by Danial Ryan. Used with permission.

What is remembered, lives. Hail the Dead!

Audio recording produced by James Lindenschmidt. ©2016 Crafted Recordings. Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Eddy Dyer: Signal

I’m really happy to share this one! It is the first track from Eddy Dyer’s upcoming album, Love Is At The Heart Of This Thing, Right?

The drums were played by Charles Greenwood, and recorded at Wonka Sound by Bob Nash. Eddy played everything else, recording the synths and bass at home, and vocals and guitars with me. The guitars were fun…. there is a percussive acoustic guitar part doubling the bass line that gives great tonality and punch. The electric guitars, if I remember right, were a strat played through tube amps, possibly an old Gibson amp that I have. They sound really good, punchy but not like saturated, over-the-top distortion.

I then mixed the track, and had Scott at Old Colony Mastering put the finishing mastering touches on it. Cover art by Che Arrajj.

If you enjoy the sound of this song, then give Eddy some support, and contact me to help you get your music sounding good.

The Droimlins – And Then There’s Whiskey

The Droimlins
“There’s everything else in the world, and then there’s whiskey….”

Very happy this song from The Droimlins was released. This is probably my favorite track from the EP we did earlier this year. These are a bunch of great songs, but this one had something special in the performance. The Droimlins describe themselves thusly:

Multi-instrumentalist Jimmy Otis and songsmith Eddy Dyer, both formerly of The Reagan Babies have again joined forces to create The Droimlins, Lowell’s newest Celtic Gypsy Punk outfit; regaling you with songs of Drinking And Rebellion.

The recording was done very simply, in a small, untreated room. It was done live in one take to preserve the performance aspect of what they do. The arrangement on this song is fantastic, the interplay between the guitar and the accordion, with the vocals sitting right on top, is really good.

I recorded the accordion with 2 dynamic microphones that have excellent sound and fantastic rear rejection, so I could maximize separation from the guitar & Eddy’s voice. Accordions produce sounds from both ends, so you really need 2 mics to do it justice. I used a pair of ribbons to record Eddy’s acoustic guitar, along with a tube mic for Eddy’s vocals. These all gave really nice tones, despite the very far from perfect room, with lots of flexibility during the mix. Because there was significant bleed between everything, I didn’t bother recording room mics, and they weren’t needed in the mix.

In addition to this project, I am working with Eddy on his upcoming solo album. Please support him if you can, it’s going to be excellent.

Morgan Lindenschmidt – When The Words Fade, We Fade

Morgan Lindenschmidt - When The Words Fade We Fade - Cover

When The Words Fade, We Fade, the new EP by Morgan Lindenschmidt, is finally here. Check it out on her Bandcamp page:

This one was fun. The basic tracks were recorded in the same way as Rest Inside (her debut EP), using my recording rig. The first track (An Aftertaste) was recorded at home, with the rest of the tracks done over at Halo Studios’ live room. The performance of An Aftertaste on the home recording was just too good, so we kept it. All the songs basic tracks were six tracks total: stereo ribbon mics on the guitar, an AKG 414 on vocals, a pair of Gefell room mics, and a DI out of the guitar.

However, there was much more post production on this one. I used the DI output to reamp the guitar on several tracks, including Little Hoaxes/Little Hopes above, which is my personal favorite track on the album. This one has a lot more texture and sonic depth than the previous recording, and the growth of the artist as a songwriter and performer is apparent since her debut EP. I also did the mixing and mastering on this one.

 

Eddy Dyer – Benefit Concert for Stephen Carpenter

Eddy Dyer with Joie Grandbois, at the Stephen Carpenter Benefit concert. Photo by Arthur Fink.
Eddy Dyer with Joie Grandbois, at the Stephen Carpenter Benefit concert. Photo by Arthur Fink.

A few weeks back, I ran sound for a pretty extraordinary show. Stephen Carpenter is the musical director for Dark Follies, and unfortunately he was hit by a truck several weeks back. He’s doing well and is expected to make a full recovery, but the community of people came together to raise some funds for Stephen. In addition to running sound for the show, I also recorded the set. Someone else took video, so there will likely be videos released of the show at some point.

The first mix from this show is of Eddy Dyer, a singer & songwriter. The room was full, and his performance was quite captivating as you can hear by the silence of the room. This recording was just 3 tracks: his vocal mic (an Audix OM-3 as I recall), a DI on his acoustic guitar, and a room mic (a trusty SM57) at the back of the hall. I think the mix came out good!

This is 2 songs performed by Eddy. The first is “Under The City” (music by Jimmy Otis, lyrics by Eddy Dyer). The second is a Cure cover, “If Only Tonight We Could Sleep” (Smith/Gallup/Thompson/Tolhurst/Williams).